1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to crop harvesting headers and more particularly to an improved floating cutterbar type header.
2. Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 2,472,762 shows means at 45 for adjusting the range of movement of a floating cutterbar. The adjusting structure 45 is located beneath a skirt 49 fixed on the header beam 21. The structure 45 is located just behind the sickle bar unit 41 and thus is underneath the pickup reel 50. The problem with such an arrangement is that the float range cannot be quickly and conveniently adjusted due to the difficulty in gaining access to the adjustment structure beneath the reel 50 and covered by the skirt 49.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,168,800, 3,021,660, and 2,875,568 are examples of adjustable skid structures on headers for varying the cutting height. None of these, however, relates to the problems of selecting and maintaining optimum cutting heights of floating type cutterbars and particularly those which are vertically flexible along their length to accommodate uneven ground across the harvesting path. Modern crop headers are of substantial length such that ease of access to the cutting height adjustment structure is a practical problem.
A further problem with headers is accommodating any crop row spacing for a particular header width without adjustment of the header. This is termed "non row-sensitive" and is accomplished by providing ground-engaging skid structure along substantially the entire length of the header. The above mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 2,895,568 shows such a skid at 25. However, that patent leaves to conjecture how a header with a flexible cutterbar could be made non row-sensitive.
While it is known to mount a crop divider on a tractor by a "parallel bar" type linkage (U.S. Pat. No. 2,247,687), the operating environment shown therein does not relate satisfactorily to problems in harvesting small grains and soybeans the latter being particularly susceptible to gathering losses at the header. For example, it will be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 2,247,687 that the divider 30 must move forwardly and rearwardly as it moves up and down due to the non-horizontal geometry of its mounting structure. Such forward and rearward movement of the divider relative to the crop being harvested could only increase the possibility of dislodging the grain heads or beans from the plants. Moreover, this prior art mounting geometry makes the divider tip susceptible to digging into ground obstructions due to its relatively high vertical force vector.
Another problem with crop dividers is in the manner in which the divider engages the ground. Particularly in soybeans, there can be small branches and leaves between the rows. Dividers which slide along the ground on front-mounted shoes can push the branches and leaves along the ground, thus interfering with the crop-cutting operation.